BY THE LATE REV. ALEXANDER MACLEOD, ROGART (FORMERLY UIG, LEWIS.)
THE providences of God towards His people are most remarkable and fraught with the most weighty instructions: they are no doubt intended for the benefit of all generations, and preserved in the Scriptures for that purpose. The history of Abraham, the friend of God and father of the faithful, is most remarkable and interesting. That part of his life and that severe trial of his faith to which the text refers we have an account from the beginning of this chapter, and in the text a remembrance is kept of it. The Lord shall be seen by His people in their difficulties, straits, and trials. He shall be seen in the mount, as in the case before us, when matters are brought to an extremity; when all succour failed, and we have neither help nor hope. As, on the one hand, we ought not to despise the chastening of the Lord, so on the other we ought not to faint when we are rebuked of Him. Just as Abraham was about to lay the knife on his son the Lord was seen; this made the deliverance most beneficial and sweet. Let us notice—
I. That it is God’s usual way to bring His people into extremities.
II. That then, and not before, the Lord will be seen.
III. That these straits and trials into which God in His sovereignty brings His children are not punishments but privileges.
IV. Let us make application.
I. That it is God’s usual way to bring His people to extremities. That is a truth so fully established by the history of God’s people, both living and dead, that we need not stay upon the point. We refer you to the great cloud of witnesses with which we are surrounded. Those that are now nearest the throne above came out of great tribulation. The tribulations do not arise out of the nature of religion necessarily, but it has been the manner in which the wise Sovereign of the world saw meet to lead His children forward towards the enjoyment of that rest which remaineth for the people of God. I would, on the present occasion, endeavour to direct your attention to a few reasons as far as we can know them and He has revealed them, of this part of the divine procedure towards His people. This may help us in apprehending and discharging duty.
(1) The Lord will bring us to extremities that they might be really felt by us as an affliction; we, too often, create innumerable evils for ourselves; and while we view them through the medium of our own fancy, we presume that there is none so heavily afflicted as we are. And it often happens that nothing will convince us of our sin and folly except the hand of God being laid heavy upon us. Then we forget what we are wont to consider as a heavy affliction. Until we are brought to an extremity it really is no affliction; and from what is not so we reap no benefit. For we come out of those furnaces we have ourselves heated more stubborn and self-willed than before. But when we are shut in on every side and have no hope left, then we shall look out of ourselves. God does not willingly grieve nor afflict any of the children of men, but He does it for their profit.
(2) That in our extremity we might seek unto God. We are all, since the introduction of sin, alienated from the life that is in God: we run after the creature, and pursue with eager, imaginary expectation the fleeting shadows, and as long as we believe that the creature can do us any good, we shall go no further. Hence it is that when we are exercised in the discipline of our Heavenly Father, and acquire spiritual discernment, we see that the severest dispensations which at the time were viewed as indications of the divine displeasure, are seen to be fruits of His love, and inseparable from it. Those that in their health live at the greatest distance from God, and never hear what He says, will often in their affliction adopt the language of, in Hos vi. 1—“Come, and let us return unto the Lord; for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up.” It is only when the aid of the creature ends that the assistance of the Creator comes in. On a death-bed almost all are serious. When the creature can afford them no comfort nor stay; when all are wholly vanity, “miserable comforters.” But it is one thing to be convinced of the vanity of, and renounce, all creature comfort from necessity, and another thing to do it from a conviction of the excellency of divine things. It is one thing to say in the bitterness of one’s spirit, “My judgment is greater than I can bear,” and another thing for the soul to say—”Thou art my portion in the land of the living.” Natural causes may produce the former, but nothing except a saving work of God upon the heart can effect the latter.
(3) That we may acknowledge and praise God as our helper and deliverer. We are so attached to self and so much under the influence of this universal idol, that when difficulties are only partial, we ascribe the deliverance, at least in part, to ourselves and other means. If we lean to the creature, we will either resolve them wholly to it, and forget God, or at best divide the praise. It is true that God has appointed means, and uniformly works by them, but until we are denied the efficacy of means and refer all to the supreme will and blessing of God, we cannot have a deliverance in God’s way nor as a real benefit; see this beautifully illustrated in the case of Gideon (Judges vii. 2). The original number which Gideon had to oppose to that of the enemy was comparatively few, but then Gideon would have ascribed the victory to himself in some measure had he been suffered to go forth with them. But when the number was so very much reduced as to leave no hope of a victory, the praise must be entirely and wholly referred to God. The language from such a deliverance will naturally be—”Not unto us, O! Lord, not unto us, but to thy name, for thy glory and truth’s sake be the praise.” God will not divide His glory, “He will not give His glory to another, nor His praise to graven images.” Had Abraham discovered the ram a moment sooner, God should not have so much glory of it, nor would Isaac be so sweet to him as receiving him from the dead. Those who are taught of God know that when they substitute any idol in place of God that He takes vengeance on that invention—all of them must say in a day of God’s mighty power—”What have I to do any more with idols?”
(4) That from a happy necessity we might be made to seek the Lord, and know Him experimentally. In our ease and prosperity we are all prone to be satisfied with a speculative acquaintance with God. And until these fine speculations are called into actual exercise by severe trials, we may think that our hill standeth firm, and shall not be moved. But all these refuges of lies shall be swept away, and in the day of evil nothing but a practical experimental acquaintance with God can support the soul. Nothing is well learned but by experience. This alone can inspire confidence in God. The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, He will deliver me (said David) out of the hands of this Philistine. It is when a person is in real extremity that he shall have experience of the Lord. Therefore, we read concerning Manasseh that when he was in affliction and prayed and humbled himself, he knew the Lord was God (II. Chron. xxxiii. 13). Such of you as attend to God’s dealings with His people will find that it was always upon some emergency or change in their circumstances and situations that He manifested Himself to them. This was eminently the case with Jacob, both on his leaving his father’s house and on his return. He had upon both these very critical occasions clear manifestations of the God of Bethel, and that knowledge of God which men acquire in such circumstances never leaves them. It has the best influence both upon their hearts and life. It even animates them to an unshaken trust in God in the prospect of death and judgment. Lastly, that our faith in, and acquaintance with, and confidence in God might be tried and proved. This view we have of this dispensation towards Abraham, see verse 1 compared with Heb. xi. 17. The most spiritual faith and the most scriptural experience have some alloy and mixture. This was the case with Abraham, though on the whole his knowledge of God was special and his love to Him sincere, yet his heart was alienated in some degree by Isaac. He suffered him to go to the utmost without committing the deed, to see whether his faith would carry him forward to that very severe act of obedience. The language of all these trials is, Lovest thou Me more than these? How severely did Jesus try the trust of Peter, and in a similar manner the woman of Canaan. But blessed is the man who endureth temptation, for when he is tried he shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away. The trial of their faith is more precious than gold that perisheth. The oftener the pure metal is melted, the more precious it is, for there is no time of melting but it is separated from some alloy. Such is the case with the vessels of mercy, until they are wholly purified, and fit to be presented without spot or wrinkle or blemish, or any such thing. With this difference, however, that all these trials and furnaces cannot purify the soul: it is only the blood of Jesus Christ, His Son, that cleanseth the soul from all sin.
By way of application: (1) Let none judge God’s love by the external evidences of it, but wait the issues. When a physician cuts deep and administers harsh medicines we may feel distressed, but without these there could be neither life nor cure. Sin has penetrated so deep, that God, in order to restore the soul, to moral health, and fit it for His own enjoyment, administers such means as He sees most fit. But both His wisdom and love are sufficient guards to prevent any unnecessary severity either in the manner, the measure, or the time. I was dumb, opening not my mouth, because Thou didst it.
(2) Let us learn from hence never to be discouraged, nor suffer our hearts to be cast down within us, however seemingly desperate our case be. A believer in God through Christ may address the language of David to himself, Ps. xlii. 11, and xliii. 5. What case could be more desperate than the one before us, and attended with circumstances of greater distress? Yet the Lord, in the fittest and most proper moment, delivered him. There are many other similar instances left us on record in the Holy Scriptures. Consider the case of Job and the happy issue of it. Consider Nebuchadnezzar’s case as in Daniel iv., the Israelites at the Red Sea, and the Jews in Mordecai’s time. And I believe there is none who has marked God’s ways towards himself, but must have remarked that man’s necessities are God’s opportunity. Still hope in God, therefore, for you shall have yet cause to praise Him, who is the light of your countenance and your God..
(3) Let this subject call forth the exercise of patience and self-examination under any particular distress or affliction. God’s time is always seasonable: a deliverance from trials, without suitable dispositions to improve that deliverance would be most hurtful to ourselves. Let patience then have its perfect work that we may be entire and wanting nothing in all the will of God.
See the difference between real religion and the bare name, true religion always produces fruit; we may have the name and the knowledge without the truth of religion. Abraham’s obedience is referred to by God Himself, as an evidence of his having feared Him (verse 12). Some think they can be honest enough men: good husbands and wives: faithful parents and affectionate dutiful children, and so on without religion which is impossible. For the tree must be good before the fruit can be good. While others think that if they can talk about religion, and attain to some experience in it, that they may neglect personal and relative duties. Both these extremes are damnable errors. Without religion man is on a level with the beasts that perish, and without the fruits of genuine universal holiness every man’s religion is vain. The apostle James tells us that Abraham justified the truth of his faith (religion) when he offered his son, Isaac. As God, therefore, in His Word, and by the work of His Spirit in the renewed soul, has joined faith and good works, let not man put them asunder. Let your light so shine before men that others seeing your good works may glorify your Father who is in heaven.
* It will be noticed by the reader that this sermon is incomplete.—Editor.